more about the second half of the day…

So we were having a discussion the other evening and it seems that there is quite a lot of interest, as well as a lack of knowledge or experience, around the core concepts of a BarCamp style unconference, so here is some more information for you.

We are taking one of the main ideas of BarCamp (that the participants create the agenda), and using that to drive the second half of the day.
The filling/planning/allocation of the slots will run for the first half of the day during breaks as well as before we start the day for those who are desperate that their session be included. Depending on how this initial “slotting” goes, we will be able to decide how many con-current sessions to run.
The current plan is to have between one and three tracks running in parallel, with 20 minute sessions and 10 minute breaks in between sessions.

This post by Emma Persky, who seems to be a semi-professional bar camp attendee, gives some good tips for first time attendee of a BarCamp.

One important thing I think should be pointed out, or rather, clarified about Emma’s post is around the concept of “hi-jacking” a session.
If you are finding a particular session boring, or it is not covering the thing you thought it would, then consider just leaving that session to take part in the Hackathon and get some code written or tested instead.
Of course, if you hear something that is just plain wrong, or have an idea how to make the session better, then feel free to attempt to alter the session, but be nice.

One idea we came up with, is that if you want help/assistance, or are willing to offer help, consider putting a note on the lid of you laptop while in the Hackathon area to let people know (funny badges/signs (in either Finnish, Swedish or English) may win a prize)
We would suggest you put things like; platform (iPhone, Android, Symbian, Maemo, OpenMoko, Qt, Plam Pre) language or technology (Mobile Python, GPS, Java etc) and if you are looking for help with a specific thing, or offering help with something (or a combination of both).

[…] iPhone, Android, Symbian, Maemo, OpenMoko, Qt, Palm Pre, Mobile Python, Java etc. As was mentioned here, we have allocated space at the venue for hacking and will be providing power and internet […]